Education has been on my mind a lot lately as I continue my Walk Across America through the gentle hills of North Carolina. Part of why I’m doing this walk is that I have seen how the lowering of education standards over the last 60 years has devastated Black communities, such as the one I live in on the South Side of Chicago. Without a proper education, one cannot go far in life in America. It is my ambition to reverse this insidious and life-sucking trend everywhere in America and when I reached the city of Raleigh I decided to visit two schools that I heard were successful.

The school for the boys is called Iron Academy and the girls’ school is called Academy31. They both sit on the same campus in separate buildings and yet their mission is the same: Raise kids the way God designed for them, strong in faith and ready for life.

When I walked into Iron Academy, the boys looked me in the eye and shook my hand like men. They talked about responsibility like it was normal. I’m so used to stressing responsibility to my own youth that it is sometimes startling when I see it ingrained in a child. All of these kids were regular boys who understood that the purpose of school was to go home each day having learned something of consequence.

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The small classes (15:1 ratio) were led by Christian teachers who actually knew each student’s name. Their mission is to “develop young men of biblical manhood and integrity.” Each student is required to lead an initiative of some sort, and that is core to the program. In addition to the books, there is a heavy emphasis on physical training, public speaking, working with their hands and using Scripture as the guiding foundation.

The results show improvement: grades jump, attitudes straighten and young men start acting like somebody’s counting on them, because somebody is. Every year, Iron Academy publishes outcome data that shows an average 8.7-point IQ increase after the first year of enrollment.

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Then I walked the path across the campus to Academy31. The vibe in the air was different but the strength and conviction were the same. The girls greeted me with quiet confidence. They resembled the Proverbs 31 woman: smart, capable, kind and fearless.

I saw these girls studying Latin, logic and literature right alongside cooking, finances, and how to run a home or a business. They were surrounded by mentors who were the older students discipling the younger ones. The school felt like a house full of sisters who decided the world doesn’t get to tell them who they are — God already did.

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What I loved about these two North Carolina schools was that there was no co-ed chaos, no watering down of standards or behavior to keep everybody comfortable. Boys get to be boys and figure out what it means to strive for biblical manhood without apology.

Girls get to be girls and grow into biblical womanhood without competition. Growth is the key word here. Both the boys and girls are given the time and space to grow into their own selves and that allows their roots to grow strong and firm. And because the schools sit right next to each other, the boys learn to respect the girls and the girls learn to respect the boys — the old-fashioned way that still works.

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I stood there on that campus thinking about the kids back on the South Side. Fatherless boys wandering the block, looking hard because nobody ever showed them how to be strong the right way. Girls raising babies while they’re still babies themselves because nobody taught them their worth. We keep throwing money at programs that treat symptoms and wonder why nothing changes.

This is the answer I’ve been praying for.

We don’t need another government report or celebrity PSA. We need places where boys become men of God and girls become women of God, separate when it helps them grow, together when it teaches them honor.

North Carolina already has the blueprint. Iron Academy and Academy31 are proving it works, one young man and one young woman at a time.

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When I get back to Chicago, Project H.O.O.D. is starting two schools of our own, one for boys and one for girls. Small at first. Biblical from the foundation. No excuses, no shortcuts. We’ll teach reading, writing and arithmetic, but more than that, we’ll teach character, courage and Christ.

Because strong boys and strong girls don’t just happen. Somebody has to build them on purpose.

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The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit accusing a school board in Virginia of violating the constitutional rights of two Christian students by enforcing a gender-identity policy that officials say punished them for their religious beliefs.

According to the DOJ, the Loudoun County School Board suspended two Stone Bridge High School boys for 10 days after they reported an incident in the boys’ locker room. A female student had allegedly entered the locker room and recorded audio and video of the boys inside.

Several boys reported the incident, including the two Christian students whose religious beliefs require them to use biologically accurate pronouns and sex-segregated facilities, the lawsuit says.

Loudoun County allegedly applied its Policy 8040 — a gender-identity rule that the DOJ says requires students and staff to “accept and promote gender ideology” regardless of religious beliefs.

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“Plaintiffs faced a choice: violate their consciences or stay true to their beliefs,” the lawsuit argues.

School officials determined the two boys committed “sex-based discrimination” and “sexual harassment,” according to the suit. As punishment, the DOJ says the district suspended them for 10 days and ordered them to undergo a “Comprehensive Student Support Plan.”

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The Justice Department claims the school board violated the boys’ rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality.”

The Loudoun County School Board did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

A father and son stranded barefoot and soaking wet in a mudhole in the Florida Everglades were rescued Thursday night, when deputies spotted the fire they had lit to stay warm.

The men got stuck in the mud in the Big Cypress National Preserve when their ATV ran out of gas, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said. With night approaching, the men called 911 for help.

“My four-wheeler ran out of gas,” the father told the 911 dispatcher. “We got stuck in a mudhole, and now we’re just here stranded. Pretty far and almost out of water with my son.”

The preserve is a vast swamp that stretches 729,000 acres across multiple counties.

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The father said he and his son both lost their shoes in the mud and were barefoot. He was also concerned about approaching wildlife as night began to fall.

“But the sun’s going down and the alligators are hungry, buddy,” he told the dispatcher, per WMGT-TV.

Deputies said the men were soaking wet and started a fire to keep warm.

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The sheriff’s Aviation Bureau launched a helicopter and tracked the men’s coordinates. They spotted the fire the men had started and saw the duo waving at the helicopter.

Video released by the sheriff’s office shows the father and son being hoisted to safety. The sheriff’s office added that the men extinguished the fire upon their rescue.

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No injuries were reported.

“This is another example of CCSO’s great training put into practice and the success that comes from seamless partnerships,” the sheriff’s office said.